System and method for concept discovery with online information environments

ABSTRACT

Provided are systems and methods for referencing intent-based taxonomies to enable more natural approaches for users to specify problems to be solved, questions to be answered, and other content requests that can be delivered within online communities. In the medical setting, physicians and medical personnel are accustomed to provide medical information and ask questions of other physicians in the form of a narrative. Narrative medical information can be easy for a physician to define but difficult to process in an online community. The inability to classify such narratives can significantly affect the ability of the physician to obtain answers to his/her question and/or search for material in the community based on his/her question. Narrative statements can be analyzed automatically and standardized concepts returned from medical taxonomies to classify a narrative question. Standardized concepts can also be used to search and/or review material relevant to the question defined within a community.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119 of U.S.Provisional Application No. 61/784,435, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FORCONCEPT DISCOVERY WITH ONLINE INFORMATION ENVIRONMENTS,” filed Mar. 14,2013, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference intheir entirety.

BACKGROUND

The phenomenon of like-minded people going online to share ideas, trade,or compete is well-accepted. In moving from the physical world to thedigital one, users create virtual “communities” where they are boundtogether by the similarities of their interests or activities, ratherthan the proximity of their location. These communities can take anynumber of forms, the most basic being discussion groups, chat rooms,blogs, and forums, which are, in effect, offline communitiesreincarnated online.

These online communities can provide powerful sources of information andcan also include dynamic creation of information useful both within andoutside of these communities.

SUMMARY

Stated broadly, various aspects of the present disclosure relate toimproving access to information generated within online communities andimproving the generation of information with the online communities.According to one aspect, various intent-based taxonomies are referencedautomatically during creation of content which can occur within anonline community or in an environment connected to the online community.Referencing intent-based taxonomies during creation of content withinthe communities provides unique opportunities to classify information asit is being created and to search within existing communities based onmatching an intent defined search.

According to another aspect, referencing intent-based taxonomies enablesmore natural approaches for users to specify problems to be solved,questions to be answered, and other content requests that can bedelivered within online communities. In the medical setting, physiciansand medical personnel are accustomed to provide medical information andask questions of other physicians in the form of a narrative. Narrativemedical information can be easy for a physician to define but difficultto process in an online community. The inability to classify suchnarratives can significantly affect the ability of the physician toobtain answers to his/her question and/or search for material in thecommunity based on his/her question. In one embodiment, narrativestatements are analyzed automatically and standardized concepts arereturned from medical taxonomies that classify a narrative question.Standardized concepts can also be used to search and/or review materialrelevant to the question defined within a community.

According to some embodiments, medical questions are generated as cases,which organize information on a question, and organize additionalinformation associated with the medical question. Additional caseinformation can also be entered in narrative form, which can also beprocessed according to identified concepts in medical taxonomies.Further, intuitive user interfaces are provided that facilitatedefinition of intent during case generation and case searching.According to one aspect, linking user interface displays and narrativedata structures associated with intent information enables definitionand navigation of intent-based models of the cases. According to oneimplementation, the intent-based models reflect standardize concepts(e.g., medical diagnoses and medical concept ontologies) facilitatingtheir navigation based on intent. Further, the intent-based models ofcases can include additional close-ended selections to further interactwith intent-based models of cases.

It also is realized that conventional online community resources can anddo fail to provide answers to question presented within the community.According to one aspect, an active recruitment approach can be executedto ensure answers and interactions occur on a given case and/orquestion. According to one embodiment, the recruitment approach can beintegrated with known or existing online communities to facilitateinformation exchange and generation. The recruitment approach can beconfigured to tap resources within an online community but also reachoutside of the community to addition resources. According to anotherembodiment, intent-based models of cases can be used across evenlanguage barriers to recruit across the largest knowledge base (e.g.,represented by users) possible. Internationally accepted concepts (e.g.,SNOMED database) can be used in conjunction with case definition. Theresulting case model is configured to be translated through variouslanguages according to the model. Thus the recruitment approach can beaugmented by targeting individuals both outside an online community andacross languages.

According to one aspect, a system for concept discovery with an onlineinformation system is provided. The system comprises at least oneprocessor operatively connect to a memory, the at least one processorconfigured to execute a plurality of system components from the memory,wherein the system components comprise a user interface configured toaccept input in an open-ended text field from a user and an ontologycomponent configured to communicate with an ontology database and matchtext fragments from the open-ended text field with concepts from theontology database.

According to one embodiment, the system further comprises an ontologydatabase including terms organized by concept. According to oneembodiment, the text fragments include portions of words, single words,or phrases (e.g., “heart att,” “col,” “albuterol” and “inflammatoryarthritis”). According to one embodiment, the ontology componentrecognizes colloquialisms in the text fragment (e.g., “heart attack”)and returns a standard term (e.g., “myocardial infarction”). Accordingto one embodiment, the ontology component disambiguates senses of thesame term (e.g., “staphylococcus” [organism], “staphylococcus toxin”[substance], “staphylococcus infection” [disorder], and “staphylococcusvaccination” [procedure]). According to one embodiment, the ontologycomponent recognizes acronyms (e.g., M.I.) and returns a completestandard term (“myocardial infarction”). According to one embodiment,the user interface component is configured to display concepts matchedby the ontology component to a user. According to one embodiment, theontology database is the Systemized Nomenclature of Medicine ClinicalTerms (SNOMED CT) database.

According to one embodiment, the system further comprises a casedatabase configured to store questions and associated information.According to one embodiment, the questions and associated informationare generation from input received from outside the environment.According to one embodiment, the questions and associated informationare generated through user interaction with the online informationenvironment. According to one embodiment, the user interface requiresinput in the open-ended text field from the user to define a case.According to one embodiment, the case database is configured to organizea question and associated information as a case object associated withstandardized concepts from the ontology database. According to oneembodiment, the case database contains classification information (e.g.,patient age, gender, and setting) that further characterizes theunstructured text in the open-ended text field. According to oneembodiment, the ontology component accesses the classificationinformation stored in the case database and matches based on at leastthe text fragment and the classification information (i.e. the systemrecognizes that the text fragment “col” is more likely matched to“colic” than “colon cancer” for a patient less than one year old).

According to one embodiment, the plurality of system components comprisean aggregation component configured to aggregate information within thecase database according to common concepts (e.g., standardized conceptsfrom the SNOMED CT database). According to one embodiment, the systemfurther comprises a search component configured to access the casedatabase. According to one embodiment, the user interface is configuredto accept a search narrative as an open-ended text input, and provideconcepts from the ontology component to the search component. Accordingto one embodiment, the search component matches concepts from theontology component to concepts associated with existing cases. Accordingto one embodiment, the ontology component assigns a match grade to eachconcept matched and ranks the matched concepts based upon the matchgrade. According to one embodiment, the ontology component determinesmatch grade based at least in part by the number of characters matchedfrom the text fragment with the ontology database concept. According toone embodiment, the ontology component determines match grade at leastin part by employing classification information in the case (e.g., age5-6 increases match grade of pediatric concepts).

According to one aspect, a computer implemented method for conceptdiscover with an online information environment is provided. The methodcomprises accepting, by a computer system, input into an open-ended textfield from a user, communicating, by the computer system, with anontology database, and matching, by the computer system, text fragmentsfrom the open-ended text field with concepts from the ontology database.

According to one embodiment, the method further comprises accessingterms organized by concept from an ontology database. According to oneembodiment, matching the text fragments includes recognizing portions ofwords, single words, or phrases (e.g., “heart att,” “col,” “albuterol”and “inflammatory arthritis”). According to one embodiment, matching thetext fragments includes recognizing colloquialisms in the text fragment(e.g., “heart attack”) and returning a standard term (e.g., “myocardialinfarction”). According to one embodiment, matching the text fragmentsincludes disambiguating senses of the same term (e.g., “staphylococcus”[organism], “staphylococcus toxin” [substance], “staphylococcusinfection” [disorder], and “staphylococcus vaccination” [procedure]).According to one embodiment, matching the text fragments includesrecognizing acronyms (e.g., M.I.) and returning a complete standard term(“myocardial infarction”). According to one embodiment, the methodfurther comprises displaying concepts matched by the ontology componentto a user. According to one embodiment, communicating with the ontologydatabase includes communicating with the Systemized Nomenclature ofMedicine Clinical Terms (SNOMED CT) database.

According to one embodiment, the method further comprises communicatingwith a case database configured to store questions and associatedinformation. According to one embodiment, communicating with the casedatabase includes generating the questions and associated informationfrom input received from outside the environment. According to oneembodiment, communicating with the case database includes generating thequestions and associated information from input received from the onlineinformation environment. According to one embodiment, communicating withthe case database includes requiring input in the open-ended text fieldfrom the user to define a case. According to one embodiment, the methodfurther comprises organizing question and associated information as acase object in the case database associated with standardized conceptsfrom the ontology database. According to one embodiment, the methodfurther comprises storing classification information (e.g., patient age,gender, and setting) that further characterizes the unstructured text inthe open-ended text field in the case database.

According to one embodiment, the method further comprises accessing theclassification information stored in the case database and matchingbased on at least the text fragment and the classification information(i.e. the system recognizes that the text fragment “col” is more likelymatched to “colic” than “colon cancer” for a patient less than one yearold). According to one embodiment, the method further comprisesaggregating information within the case database according to commonconcepts (e.g., standardized concepts from the SNOMED CT database).

According to one embodiment, the method further comprises searching thecase database. According to one embodiment, searching the case databaseincludes accepting a search narrative as an open-ended text input andaccessing the ontology database. According to one embodiment, searchingthe case database includes matching concepts from the ontology databaseto concepts associated with existing cases. According to one embodiment,the method further comprises assigns a match grade to each conceptmatched and ranks the matched concepts based upon the match grade.According to one embodiment, the method further comprises determiningmatch grade based at least in part by the number of characters matchedfrom the text fragment with the ontology database concepts. According toone embodiment, the method further comprises determining match grade atleast in part by employing classification information in the case (e.g.,age 5-6 increases match grade of pediatric concepts).

According to one aspect, a non-transitory computer readable mediumcontaining instruction that when executed cause a computer to system toperform the above methods is provided. Embodiments of the computerreadable medium implement each of the method functions aboveindividually and in combination.

According to one aspect, a system interacting with an online informationenvironment is provided. The system comprises at least one processoroperatively connect to a memory, the at least one processor configuredto execute a plurality of system components from the memory, wherein thesystem components comprise a user interface configured to accept data,wherein the user interface component is configured to require entry ofat least one data parameter, wherein the at least one data parameterincludes at least a first open-ended text data parameter and a firstclose-ended text data parameter among a plurality of data parameters,wherein the user interface component is configured to require entry ofat least one data parameter, wherein the at least one data parameterincludes at least a first open-ended text data parameter and a firstclose-ended text data parameter among a plurality of data parameters,wherein the plurality of views comprise at least one of a creation viewcomprising a plurality of sections in a display, wherein the creationview is configured for creating a case, a response view comprising aplurality of sections in the display, wherein the response view isconfigured for responding to the case, and a search view comprising aplurality of sections in the display, wherein the search view isconfigured to match content responsive to data parameters entered by auser.

According to one embodiment, the case is a data object configured tostore case information, the case information including at least one of aquestion, a specialty requirement, and at least one concept. Accordingto one embodiment, the case is a data object configured to store caseinformation, the case information including at least two of a question,a specialty requirement, and at least one concept. According to oneembodiment, the case is a data object configured to store caseinformation, the case information including a question, a specialtyrequirement, and at least one concept.

According to one embodiment, the system further comprises an ontologycomponent, executed by the at least one processor, configured tocommunicate with an ontology database and match text fragments fromopen-ended text fields with concepts from the ontology database.According to one embodiment, the user interface component is furtherconfigured to display the matched concepts to the user in any of theplurality of views. According to one embodiment, the concepts recognizedby the ontology component in any open-ended text field in any of theplurality of views are emphasized (e.g., underlining, display intensity,bold, color, etc.).

According to one embodiment, the creation view includes a first sectioncomprising at least one close-ended data field. According to oneembodiment, the at least one close ended data field in the first sectionof the creation view accepts data into the specialty requirementparameter of the case. According to one embodiment, the creation viewincludes a second section comprising at least one data field that isconfigurable between an open-ended data field and a close-ended datafield. According to one embodiment, the at least one data field that isconfigurable between an open-ended data field and a close-ended datafield accepts data into the question parameter of the case. According toone embodiment, the response view includes a first section configured todisplay any of the case information to the user.

According to one embodiment, the user interface component is configuredto continuously update a list of cases in a second section of the searchview responsive to text input into a first open-ended text parameter ina first section of the search view. According to one embodiment, thesearch view includes a third section configured to graphically displaystatistics of the list of cases in the second section of the searchview. According to one embodiment, the second section of the search viewcollapses responsive to user input on a first button in the search view.According to one embodiment, the search view includes a fourth sectionconfigured to graphically display the frequency of concepts in the listof cases. According to one embodiment, the list of cases in the secondsection of the search view is ranked responsive to user input on asecond button in the second section of the search view. According to oneembodiment, the user interface component is configured to transitionfrom the creation view to the search view responsive to user input.According to one embodiment, the user interface operates on a mobiledevice. According to one embodiment, the creation view includes a firstbutton that takes a picture through a camera embedded in the mobiledevice. According to one embodiment, the picture taken through theembedded camera in the mobile device is stored in the case data object.

According to one aspect, a computer implemented method interacting withan online environment is provided. The method comprises requiring, by acomputer system, entry of at least one data parameter, the at least onedata parameter including at least a first open-ended text data parameterand a first close-ended data parameter among a plurality of dataparameters, displaying, by the computer system, a plurality of viewsconfigured for entry of the at least one data parameter, whereindisplaying the plurality of views includes displaying at least one of acreation view comprising a plurality of sections in a display, whereinthe creation view is configured for creating a case, a response viewcomprising a plurality of sections in the display, wherein the responseview is configured for responding to a case, and a search viewcomprising a plurality of sections in the display, wherein the searchview is configured to match content responsive to data parametersentered by a user.

According to one embodiment, the method further comprises storing caseinformation, the case information including at least one of a question,a specialty requirement, and at least one concept. According to oneembodiment, the method further comprises storing case information, thecase information including at least two of a question, a specialtyrequirement, and at least one concept. According to one embodiment, themethod further comprises storing case information, the case informationincluding a question, a specialty requirement, and at least one concept.According to one embodiment, the method further comprises communicatingwith an ontology database and matching text fragments from open-endedtext fields with concepts from the ontology database. According to oneembodiment, the method further comprises displaying the matched conceptsto the user in any of the plurality of views. According to oneembodiment, the method further comprises emphasizing any matched conceptin any open-ended text field in any of the plurality of views (e.g.,underlining, display intensity, bold, color, etc.).

According to one embodiment, displaying the creation view includesdisplaying a first section comprising at least one close-ended datafield. According to one embodiment, displaying the creation viewincludes accepting the specialty requirement parameter of the case inthe at least one close ended data field in the first section of thecreation view. According to one embodiment, displaying the creation viewincludes displaying a second section comprising at least one data fieldthat is configurable between an open-ended data field and a close-endeddata field. According to one embodiment, displaying the creation viewincludes accepting the question parameter of the case in the at leastone data field that is configurable between an open-ended data field anda close-ended data field. According to one embodiment, displaying theresponse view includes displaying a first section configured to displayany of the case information to the user.

According to one embodiment, displaying the search view includescontinuously updating a list of cases in a second section of the searchview responsive to text input into a first open-ended text parameter ina first section of the search view. According to one embodiment,displaying the search view includes displaying a third sectionconfigured to graphically display statistics of the list of cases in thesecond section of the search view. According to one embodiment,displaying the second section of the search view includes collapsing thesecond section responsive to user input on a first button in the searchview. According to one embodiment, displaying the search view includesdisplaying a fourth section configured to graphically display thefrequency of concepts in the list of cases. According to one embodiment,displaying the list of cases in the second section of the search viewincludes ranking the cases responsive to user input on a second buttonin the second section of the search view. According to one embodiment,displaying the creation view includes transitioning to displaying thesearch view responsive to user input. According to one embodiment, themethod further comprises displaying the plurality of views to the userfrom a mobile device. According to one embodiment, displaying thecreation view includes displaying a first button that takes a picturethrough a camera embedded in the mobile device. According to oneembodiment, the method further comprises storing the picture takenthrough the embedded camera in the mobile device in the case dataobject.

According to one aspect, a non-transitory computer readable mediumcontaining instruction that when executed cause a computer to system toperform the above methods is provided. Embodiments of the computerreadable medium implement each of the method functions aboveindividually and in combination.

According to one aspect, a system for recruiting participation in anonline information environment is provided. The system comprises atleast one processor operatively connect to a memory, the at least oneprocessor configured to execute a plurality of system components fromthe memory, wherein the system components comprise a case componentconfigured to store case information, the case information including atleast one of a question, a specialty requirement, and at least oneconcept, a recruitment component, executed by the at least oneprocessor, configured to access the case information, determine anyspecialty requirement of the case, access at least one professionalnetwork inside the environment and at least one individual outside theenvironment, wherein the at least one professional network contains aplurality of individuals, determine the specialty of each individualamong the plurality of individuals to identify qualified individuals,determine a method of communication with each qualified individual, anddeliver a response request to each qualified individual through thedetermined method of communication.

According to one embodiment, the case information includes at least twoof a question, a specialty requirement, and at least one concept.According to one embodiment, the case information includes a question, aspecialty requirement, and at least one concept. According to oneembodiment, the recruitment component is configured to match thespecialty of each individual with the specialty requirement in the case.According to one embodiment, the recruitment component is configured tocapture contact information for individuals outside the environment.According to one embodiment, the recruitment component is configuredcapture specialty information for individuals outside the environment.According to one embodiment, the recruitment component is configured tocapture language information from individuals outside the environment.According to one embodiment, the recruitment component is configured todeliver a response request to individuals outside the online environment(e.g., based on matched specialties).

According to one embodiment, at least one of the plurality ofprofessional networks is an online community of users each with a userprofile stored in a user profile database (e.g., medical network ofphysicians). According to one embodiment, the user profile stored in theuser profile database comprises at least user specialty information andpreferred user communication information. According to one embodiment,the recruitment component is configured to access the user profiles.According to one embodiment, the recruitment component is configured todetermine the method of communication with each qualified individualwithin the online community of users based upon the preferred usercommunication information. According to one embodiment, the recruitmentcomponent is configured to determine the specialty of each individualwithin the online community of users based upon the user specialtyinformation. According to one embodiment, the user profile databasecomprises user language information.

According to one embodiment, the system further comprises a translationcomponent, executed by the at least one processor, configured totranslate cases from a first language to at least one second language.According to one embodiment, the translation component is configured toextract concepts from the case to generate a concept model. According toone embodiment, the translation component is configured to translateconcepts from the concept model. According to one embodiment, thetranslation component is configured to insert words from the secondlanguage into the case. According to one embodiment, the translationcomponent is configured to display the translated case to the user inthe at least one second language. According to one embodiment, therecruitment component is configured to deliver a response request for acase stored in the system in the first language from individualsidentified as speaking the at least one second language.

According to one aspect, a computer implemented method for recruitingparticipating in an online information environment is provided. Themethod comprises storing, by a computer system, case information, thecase information including at least one of a question, a specialtyrequirement, and at least one concept, accessing, by the computersystem, the case information, determining, by the computer system, anyspecialty requirement of the case, accessing, by the computer system, atleast one professional network inside the environment and at least oneindividual outside the environment, wherein the at least oneprofessional network contains a plurality of individuals, determining,by the computer system, the specialty of each individual among theplurality of individuals to identify qualified individuals, determining,by the computer system, a method of communication with each qualifiedindividual, and delivering, by the computer system, a response requestto each qualified individual through the determined method ofcommunication.

According to one embodiment, storing the case information includesstoring at least two of a question, a specialty requirement, and atleast one concept. According to one embodiment, storing the caseinformation includes storing a question, a specialty requirement, and atleast one concept. According to one embodiment, determining thespecialty includes matching the specialty of each individual with thespecialty requirement in the case. According to one embodiment, themethod further comprises accessing one individual outside the networkincludes capturing contact information for individuals outside theenvironment. According to one embodiment, the method further comprisesaccessing one individual outside the network includes capturingspecialty information for individuals outside the environment. Accordingto one embodiment, the method further comprises accessing one individualoutside the network includes capturing information from individualsoutside the environment. According to one embodiment, accessing oneindividual outside the network includes delivering a response request toindividuals outside the online environment (e.g., based on matchedspecialties).

According to one embodiment, accessing the at least one of the pluralityof professional networks includes accessing an online community of userseach with a user profile stored in a user profile database (e.g.,medical network of physicians). According to one embodiment, the methodfurther comprises storing at least user specialty information andpreferred user communication information in the user profile. Accordingto one embodiment, accessing the at least one of the plurality ofprofessional networks includes accessing the user profiles. According toone embodiment, determining the method of communication with eachqualified individual within the online community of users includesdetermining the communication method responsive to the preferred usercommunication information in the user profile. According to oneembodiment, determining the specialty of each individual within theonline community of users includes determining the specialty of eachindividual responsive to the user specialty information in the userprofile. According to one embodiment, the method further comprisesstoring user language information in the user profile database.

According to one embodiment, the method further comprises translatingcases from a first language to at least one second language. Accordingto one embodiment, translating cases includes extracting concepts fromthe case to generate a concept model. According to one embodiment,translating cases includes translating concepts from the concept model.According to one embodiment, translating the cases includes insertingwords from the second language into the case. According to oneembodiment, translating the cases includes displaying the translatedcase to the user in the at least one second language. According to oneembodiment, delivering a response question includes delivering aresponse request for a case stored in the system in the first languagefrom individuals identified as speaking the at least one secondlanguage.

According to one aspect, a non-transitory computer readable mediumcontaining instruction that when executed cause a computer to system toperform the above methods is provided. Embodiments of the computerreadable medium implement each of the method functions aboveindividually and in combination.

Still other aspects, embodiments and advantages of these exemplaryaspects and embodiments, are discussed in detail below. Moreover, it isto be understood that both the foregoing information and the followingdetailed description are merely illustrative examples of various aspectsand embodiments, and are intended to provide an overview or frameworkfor understanding the nature and character of the claimed aspects andembodiments. Any embodiment disclosed herein may be combined with anyother embodiment. References to “an embodiment,” “an example,” “someembodiments,” “some examples,” “an alternate embodiment,” “variousembodiments,” “one embodiment,” “at least one embodiment,” “this andother embodiments” or the like are not necessarily mutually exclusiveand are intended to indicate that a particular feature, structure, orcharacteristic described in connection with the embodiment may beincluded in at least one embodiment. The appearances of such termsherein are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Various aspects of at least one embodiment are discussed below withreference to the accompanying figures, which are not intended to bedrawn to scale. The figures are included to provide an illustration anda further understanding of the various aspects and embodiments, and areincorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, but are notintended as a definition of the limits of any particular embodiment. Thedrawings, together with the remainder of the specification, serve toexplain principles and operations of the described and claimed aspectsand embodiments. In the figures, each identical or nearly identicalcomponent that is illustrated in various figures is represented by alike numeral. For purposes of clarity, not every component may belabeled in every figure. In the figures:

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a process for interacting with an onlinesystem, according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a process for generating insights, accordingto one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing a process for creating a case, accordingto one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing a process for responding to a case,according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing a process for searching and browsingcases, according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a flow chart showing a process for implementing typeaheadfunctionality, according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a flow chart showing a process for ranking responses,according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a flow chart showing a process for soliciting responses forcases, according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a flow chart showing a process for translating cases,according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a general-purpose computer system uponwhich various embodiments of the invention may be implemented;

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a distributed computer system with whichvarious embodiments of the invention may be practiced;

FIGS. 12A-B are diagrams showing example interfaces according to variousembodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example interface according to oneembodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 14A-B are diagrams showing example interfaces according to variousembodiments of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

According to one aspect, it is realized that benefits can be obtained byproviding users with information targeted to their specific inquiries.One aspect of the present invention is provided by an intent engine(e.g., intent engine 102) executed on a computer system as shown inFIG. 1. The intent engine 102 is configured to accept user inquiries, inthe form of a question 104, for example, through a user interfacecomponent 106. The question 104 may contain additional supportinginformation to aid the intent engine 102 in generating an appropriateinsight 114 directly related to a user's question. Insight 114 may takethe form of answers to a user's specific question generated byindividuals within the appropriate field of expertise. In the field ofhealth care, for example, a question may be related to a suggestedprescription for a patient with a specific ailment relating to apatient's skin. The insight generated by the intent engine may then takethe form of a suggested prescription for the patient generated by apracticing dermatologist.

The intent engine 102 is further configured to leverage informationprovided by an ontology component 108 to perform a typeahead process forthe user while entering text in an open-ended field. The ontologycomponent is configured to organize concepts into a searchable ontologyor taxonomy. The ontology component may extract word fragments, entirewords, or any combination therein as they are entered to find relatedconcepts in the ontology database. The ontology database may thenprovide ranked concept suggestions for the user based upon matchquality. In the field of health care, for example, the intent engine canbe configured to process a question related to a patient's ailment beinginput as a narrative to find concepts related to the specific ailmentand provide suggestions to the user in real time. The ontology componentmay also match words for the purpose of classifying cases for improvedorganization and searching.

In one example, the intent engine may then, through a recruitmentmechanism 110 recruit individuals for responses to the questions. In oneimplementation, the recruitment mechanism 110 identifies the appropriatebackground required for a respondent for a given case and solicitsresponses. The recruitment mechanism may leverage any online network ofprofessionals to locate users. For example, in the field of health care,the recruitment mechanism may access a network of optometrists to pose aquestion relating to a patient's eyes. The communication architecturefor response solicitation may be customized to fit the specific networkbeing accessed or the preferences of an individual.

In another example, the intent engine may leverage users within aninternal online community 112 to generate responses for questions. Theonline community may be composed of users within a given field andinformation regarding their respective specialty information. Thespecialty information related to each user may include their education,occupation, and status as a current practitioner. In the field of healthcare, the online community may be composed of professionals in the fieldof medicine. The respective specialty information for each user maycontain their sub-discipline within medicine (e.g., Dermatology,Optometry, etc.) including their status as a practitioner (e.g.,currently practicing within their given sub-discipline). The onlinecommunity 112 may provide information to the recruitment mechanism 110to solicit responses from users within the online community.

In one embodiment, the intent engine operates within an interactiveonline information environment which may be accessed by one or morecomputer systems (e.g., Personal Computers (PCs), Portable DigitalAssistants (PDAs), telephones, or other computer system types) usingvarious forms of communication (e.g., Internet, cellular network, etc.)to provide individuals with specific information directly pertinent totheir needs. The environment is used to generate, aggregate, and filterinformation between users in the interactive online informationenvironment. In one implementation, a mobile application tool isprovided to permit physicians to locate answers to their questions fromthe physician community in near-real time, based on anonymous caseinformation provided by the physician.

Example Process

FIG. 2 shows an example process 200 for generating insights directlypertinent to a specific question. The process 200 begins at 202 with auser entering a specific question. According to one embodiment, theentry of the question at 202 begins an interaction with an informationenvironment (e.g., system 100). The information environment provides anonline platform for exchanging information between users. In oneembodiment, the information environment can facilitate the exchange ofmedical information. In particular, diagnostic information can beexchanged, discussed and/or evaluated between groups of physicians orother users. The exchanges information can be stored in repositories.The repositories can be referenced in response to a question entered at202 to determine if an insight is available.

For example, the user may search/browse a database of existing cases 204in order to find a pertinent insight to his or her question. Thedatabase of existing case organizes information developed through theinformation environment. In the medical setting, the database ofexisting cases can be specifically organized to facilitate search bymedical concepts. In some embodiments, the medical concepts can beprovided as external references to medical concept ontologies. In oneembodiment, the user may search through an open-text field and/or selectspecific search criteria (e.g., age of patient) from pre-defined listsaccessed in the database at 204. The system can be configured to containa typeahead component that matches the user's input into the open-textsearch field with concepts in an ontology database related to the givenfield of interest. Additionally, the matched concepts may be displayedto the user to help better define the search. The list of cases matchedto both the open-text search field and the specific search criteria maybe updated continuously as the user enters information. The suppliedmatched cases may then be ranked based upon the quality of the match.

The user may also create a new case 206 related to the specificquestion. In one example, the new case can be created through executionof an intent engine 102 on a system 100. The new case 206 may containclose-ended and/or open-ended information relevant to the user'squestion. The open-ended information may take the form of a narrativeand/or pertinent images. Typeahead functionality can also be executed inconjunction with new case definition, for, example, through execution ofthe ontology component 108 that references an ontology database 208 toidentify relevant concepts in the specific field of the question. Thesystem can be configured to provide the relevant concepts to the userthrough suggestions while the user is entering text into the open-endedfields in the case to assist the user in better defining their question.In addition, the user initiating the case may select restrictioncriteria for the respondents based upon their specialty information. Thecase 206 may then be posed to the online community 210 within theenvironment. The system can be configured to recruit individuals througha recruitment mechanism 110 executed by the intent engine. The systemcan be configured to leverage individuals from both inside and outsidethe online community that meet the specialty criteria set forth by theinitiating user for the case. Individuals may be incentivized to respondto the case by the system. The incentives provided for a given case neednot be static; they can change as parameters associated with the casechange (e.g., number of responses, time since last response, etc.).

Individuals who meet the specialty requirements of the case, referred toas qualified individuals, may respond to the case through multiplemethods. Qualified individuals may submit their own responses to thecase, submit comments to previously submitted responses, or vote onpreviously submitted responses. Voting on a response may take the formof an “up-vote” to add credibility to the response to a “down-vote” toreduce the credibility of the response. The responses submitted may thenbe ranked based upon utility and provided as insight to the user whoinitiated the case.

As described above, a user may create a case to generate questionspecific insight. FIG. 3 shows an example flowchart showing an exampleprocess 300 for creating a case according to one embodiment. The process300 begins at 302, with creation of a case. In one example, a user witha specific question may create a case 302. Definition of a case at 302can include displaying case parameters to the user. In some examples,the user can be requested to provide data in forms displayed to theusers associated with specific data fields. For example, a case maycontain supporting information in the form of open-ended parametersand/or close-ended parameters. The open-ended parameters may include anarrative field allowing the user to describe their question. Theclose-ended parameters may include generic classification items relatedto the type of question in addition to specific criteria relating to therestriction criteria to focus the specialty areas of the respondents. Inone example for a health care setting, the cases are implemented in thefield of health care. The open-ended parameters may include a “chiefcomplaint” or “CC” of the user along with an associated question such as“what should I prescribe?” or “what is the appropriate diagnosis?” Inthe field of health care, for example, the system can be configured toalso include the open-ended parameter “history of present illness” or“HPI.” The close-ended parameters associated with the case may includepatient age, gender, and setting.

Definition of a case at 302 can include processing of word fragmentswithin the open-ended parameters, such as the narrative fields. In oneexample, definition of the case at 302 includes operations for matchingconcepts from an ontology database with the word fragments. As the wordfragments are entered and processed the match concepts can be displayedto the user to achieve typeahead functionality. One embodiment oftypeahead functions is described below with reference FIG. 6 (and shownin Display 1220 of FIG. 12B).

The matched terms in the narrative fields generated at 302 may be storedwith the case as “tags” used to further classify the case as part of302. The tags in addition to the close-ended parameters may be used tofind related cases 304 to display to the user. According to oneembodiment, as the user types a question defining at least someinformation on the case matching concepts can be delivered and thecombined information can be used to search for related cases at 304. Inone embodiment, matching concepts can be refined and delivered to theuser in real time as part of 302. Additionally, related cases can berefined and delivered to the user as concept matches are refined anddeliver, enabling more refined searches to match related cases as theuser's intent becomes better defined. The related cases may be updatedcontinuously in a case repository throughout the case creation process.Any updates to the case repository can likewise be presented to the useras to mitigate duplication in the system.

Once pertinent information has be defined for the case at 302, and anypotential matches have been delivered at 304, the new case can besubmitted at 306. In one embodiment, a user enters information at 302,reviewed related cases at 304, and submits the new case at 306 to thesystem. In response to a new case submission, process 300 can continueat 308 with recruiting responders.

In one example, the system can be configured to recruitment individualsto get responses to the new case at 308. The system can be configured toleverage an online community within the environment and/or recruitindividuals from outside the environment in related professionalnetworks to respond to the case. The act of recruiting at 308 caninclude accessing the qualifications of candidate responders. In oneembodiment, accessing the qualifications of candidate respondersincludes determining qualifications for individual candidate respondersand matching their qualifications to the specialty requirements forth inthe case. According to one embodiment, inside the online community, userinformation may be accessed to further determine the best method ofsolicitation for each user (e.g., email or text message). Execution ofstep 308 can include execution of additional processes. For example,recruitment at 308 can include execution of a sub-process, instantiationof other processes, which match recruitment criteria to specificresponders. The specific responders can be identified and returned bythe sub-processes at part of 308. In one example, a recruitmentsub-process, mechanisms, and/or functionality is described below withrespect to process 800, FIG. 8.

After responses directly relevant to the case have been received, thesystem can be configured to further assign a “score” or utility ratingto each response for the purpose of ranking the responses 310. The scoremay be determined in part by the ranking of the user who submitted theresponse within the community. The system can be configured to track thehistory of each user within the online community and assign each user arank based upon their interactions within the online community. A user'srank may increase by providing valuable responses to cases while auser's rank may decrease by providing poor responses to cases. Inaddition, the score of a response may also be determined in part by thenumber of “up-votes” relative to the number of “down-votes” submittedfor the given response by other users. “Up-votes” submitted by usersrepresent a user commenting “I concur” with the response while downvotes submitted by users represent a user commenting “I disagree” withthe response.

The user who submitted the case may then review the ranked cases 312 anddetermine an appropriate action. In reviewing the responses, the usermay submit their final action based upon the responses and the action'sassociated outcome for the general knowledge users within theenvironment. In a health care application, the user who submitted thequestion may give a patient a prescription based upon responses to theirinquiry. The user who submitted the question may then post commentsrelating to the efficacy of the prescription to better educate userswithin the online community.

The system can be configured to enable individuals to respond to casesin order to generate new insight relative to a question. FIG. 4 shows anexample flowchart showing an example process 400 for responding to casesaccording to one embodiment. The process 400 begins at 402, withexecution of a search on a database. In one embodiment, an onlineinformation system provides access to a database for medical insights. Auser within the online community may search the case database 402 toidentify cases of interest at 404. The system can be configured tomonitor case entry/updates through at the database (e.g., at 402) andoptionally send notifications to a user including cases of interest, forexample, determined by their history of interaction with the system orpreferences associated with their profile in the online community.According to one embodiment, the system can be configured to store aprofile for each user within the community that contains informationrelating to the user. In one example, the user profile can include theirinterests and preferred communication methods. The system can beconfigured to tailor case notifications and subsequent case updatenotification methods used to contact the user based upon informationwithin their profile in the online community.

Once a user has identified a case of interest (e.g., 404), or received anotification relating to a case from the system, the user may submit aresponse 408 or add an additional comment to a pre-existing response tofurther define the response. The response may include a narrativeresponse in an open-ended parameter field. In some embodiments, thesystem provides a user interface including a typeahead functionality toassist the respondent in defining the response. One embodiment oftypeahead functionality is described below with reference FIG. 6 (andshown in Display 1220 of FIG. 12B). The typeahead functionality canfacilitate concept identification within responses similarly to entry ofcases. Consistent concept identification facilitates generation ofcontent within the system that is readily and consistently searchable.

According to one embodiment, the system can be configured to solicitresponses from individuals outside the system (i.e. from otherprofessional networks) by transforming the case into a survey. In oneexample, the system is configured to generate a survey from informationcontained in the case and in particular any question being asked. Thesystem can target such surveys to users outside of the network, outsideof the online information system, etc. In response to receiving asurvey, the individual may then submit a response to the survey in asimilar fashion to a user within the online community. In one example,the survey is delivered electronically. The survey can contain links toanswers and/or voting options that upon selection will automaticallydeliver the individuals answer and/or vote. In other examples, thesurvey can contain access information (including, for example, accesscredentials) that allow access to a case on the system.

The system can be configured to allow the user to vote on an existingresponse 406 through either up-voting a response or down-voting aresponse. Up-voting a response may increase the utility score associatedwith the response and increase its ranking among a plurality ofresponses submitted to a case. Down-voting a response may decrease thescore associated with the response and decrease its ranking among aplurality of responses submitted to a case. The system can be configuredto analyze the composition of votes, up-votes and down-votes, and alterthe ranking of the respondent within the online community. The user mayalso flag a response for further review by other users or administrators(e.g., moderators) within the environment.

In another example, the online community may have a discussion forumthat enables users to discuss topics online. In this example, the systemcan be configured to enable a user to generate a related discussionforum 410 to further discuss the finer points of the case and subsequentresponses.

In addition to case creation and response generation, user may have theoption to search or browse the existing cases. FIG. 5 shows an exampleflowchart showing an example process 500 for searching and browsingcases according to one embodiment. The process 500 begins at 502, withdisplaying a list of cases. In one example, a user within theenvironment may browse or search displayed cases at 502. According toone embodiment, the user may select close-ended parameters or enter textinto an open-ended parameter, such as a search field, as input into thesearch to refine the list of entries displayed to the user. The systemcan be configured to continuously update the list of cases displayed tothe user as additional search criteria are selected or entered. Theopen-ended parameter field in the search may include typeaheadfunctionality where the system references an ontology database toprovide suggestions to the user. One embodiment of typeahead functionsis described below with reference FIG. 6 (and shown in Display 1220 ofFIG. 12B). In addition, the system can be configured to display thematched concepts labeled as tags and used as an additional means oflocating similar records within the database, for example, as shown inDisplay 1422 of FIG. 14B.

The system can be configured to match the cases 506 based on all of theentered search criteria. The cases may then be ranked based upon thequality of the match. In one example, the quality of the match may bebased on the number of matched tags and classification informationitems. The ranked cases may then be displayed at 508 to the user inaddition to statistics relating to the returned cases from the query asshown in Display 1408 of FIG. 14A. Execution of step 506 can includeexecution of additional processes. For example, matching at 506 caninclude execution of a sub-process, instantiation of other processes,which translate cases within the case database from foreign languages toa preferred language for the viewing user. The cases to be translatedcan be identified, translated, and returned by the sub-processes at partof 506. In one example, a translation sub-process, mechanisms, and/orfunctionality is described below with respect to process 900, FIG. 9.

The system can be configured to contain therein a typeahead feature toassist users throughout the case creation, search, and responseprocesses. FIG. 6 shows an example flowchart showing an example process600 for implementing typeahead functionality in one embodiment. Theprocess 600 begins at 602, with text input. According to one embodiment,the text input is received from an open-ended field parameter displayedin a search interface. In one example, a user inputs text into anopen-ended text parameter field at 602. The text fragments may beextracted from the open-ended text parameter field while the user istyping into the field 604. The text fragments may include entire words,phrases, or sections of words. The system selects text fragments toanalyze based upon their contextual relevance to the case. In the fieldof health care, for example, a user may enter the following narrative inan open-ended field, “a 35 y/o male with HLA B27-positive inflammatoryarthritis.” They system can be configured to match the phrases “HLAB27-positive” and “inflammatory arthritis” rather than trying to matchother words that are not contextually relevant such as “a” or “with.”

The text fragments extracted from the open-ended field may then bematched with an ontology database to find matching concepts 606pertinent to the specific field of the question. The text fragmentsrecognized by the system for the purpose of matching to an ontologydatabase may include acronyms, colloquial terms, synonyms, and anycombination thereof. The list of matched concepts may then be rankedbased upon the degree of string match or frequency of the concept in theontology database 608. The system can be configured to also utilizeclose-ended parameters or other classification tags to improve thequality of the return matches.

In the field of health care, for example, the ontology database may bethe Systemized Nomenclature of Medicine Clinical Terms (SNOMED CT)database. The system can be configured to utilize the close-endedparameter age associated with a case to improve the quality of thereturned typeahead matches. For example, the system can be configured torecognize that a user typed “col” relating to a patient under the age ofone year. The system can be configured to recognize that there is ahigher probability that “colic” is the intended concept rather than“colon cancer.” In another example in the field of health care, a usermay enter a synonym or colloquial term relative to the establishedontology database such as the phrase “heart attack.” The system can beconfigured to match “heart attack” with the corresponding term“myocardial infarction” in the SNOMED CT database.

In one embodiment relating to the field of health care, the system canbe configured to re-evaluate medical disclosure in a variety ofenvironments to classify generated content. One example, the generatedcontent can be classified according to concepts. In another example,concept discovery executed by the system can recognize the phrases“male” and “35 y/o” in the narrative “a 35 y/o male with HLAB27-positive inflammatory arthritis” from existing content. The existingcontent may be modeled into open-ended and close-ended data structures.For example, the data structures may include classification fieldsrelating to the patient gender and age can be populated by the systemwith the appropriate information (patient gender: “male” and patientage: “35”). In another embodiment, the system can be configured togenerate an entire case, including case classification information, fromexisting content (e.g., any narrative). The source data narratives canbe obtained from another existing environment. Another existingenvironment that can be used as an information source to generate casesis described in commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 8,239,240, included asAppendix A. Appendix A forms an instant part of this Specification.

In addition, the system can be configured to make suggestions to theuser to disambiguate terms in a given field in process 608. In the fieldof medicine, for example, the term “staphylococcus” could be referringto the “staphylococcus” organism, the substance “staphylococcus toxin”,the disorder “staphylococcus infection”, or the procedure“staphylococcus vaccination.” The system can be configured to pose allof the aforementioned items relating to “staphylococcus” as suggestionsto the user to help clarify their input text.

After the system has determined the list of matching terms in process608, the system can be configured to rank the terms in process 610. Theterms may be ranked based on the number of words matched in a phrase orthe number of close-ended parameters matched with the concept. The listof ranked suggestions may be displayed to the user in process 612 andcontinuously updated as the user continues to enter text. Anillustration of the suggestions displayed to the user may be seen inDisplay 1220 of FIG. 12B.

The system can be configured to employ a response ranking process tofurther assist the user discover concepts stored in the onlinecommunity. FIG. 7 shows an example flowchart showing an example process700 for ranking responses in one embodiment. The process begins at 702,with receiving a case response. An individual may respond to a casethrough multiple methods at 702 as discussed in detail above (e.g., inprocess 400 of FIG. 4). The system can be configured to analyze thestatus or ranking of the respondent at 704, if the respondent is fromwithin the online community. The status or ranking of each member in theonline community may be stored in their respective online profile. Theranking of a member in the online community may be determined, forexample, by the length of time a member has been active within theonline community, level of education relating to their specialty, ortime spent as a practitioner within their specialty. Similar metrics maybe analyzed from respondents recruited by the system from professionalnetworks outside the system. The ranking of a respondent associated witha response may be displayed to the user through the user interface(e.g., Display 1360C of FIG. 13).

The system can be configured to also analyze the composition of votesrelated to each response at 706. An individual responding to a case mayoptionally submit an up-vote or down-vote with respect to each response.The analysis process may include subtracting the number of down-votesfrom the number of up-votes received on a response in order to get anaggregate vote count. The aggregate vote count may be displayed to theuser through the user interface as seen in Display 1320B of FIG. 13. Thecomments submitted by other individuals with respect to a specificresponse may also be analyzed at 708. For example, the number ofcomments on a specific response may be determined. Each of the analyzedfeatures may yield a numeric value that can be incorporated into aweighted average to determine a final utility score assigned to theresponse 710.

As discussed, various types of responses can be analyzed to determinedutility. In some embodiments, responses can be actively solicited andits utility scored. FIG. 8 shows an example flowchart showing an exampleprocess 800 for soliciting responses for cases in one embodiment. Theprocess begins at 802, with accessing case information. The system canbe configured to access case information at 802 to determine whatspecialty requirements were created by the case creator at 804. The caseinformation may also be used to determine the duration that the case hasbeen unanswered or time after the last response to access the urgency ofresponses needed for the case. The system can be configured to recruitusers both inside and outside the online community at 806 that are inthe generic field of interest to the case (e.g., health careprofessionals). Resources that exist outside the online community mayinclude networks of professionals in the field pertinent to the case.The system will then determine whether each individual is inside oroutside the community at 808 and apply a recruitment process based upontheir community affiliation.

If it is determined that a user is within the online community, thesystem can be configured to leverage the information stored in theuser's profile within the system at 810. The qualifications of thespecific user may be determined if they have the appropriate specialty(e.g., Optometrist) required for the case at 812. If the user meets thespecialty requirements of the case, the system can be configured todetermine the appropriate method to solicit a response from the user at818. The appropriate method may be determined by accessing communicationpreference information of the user from their profile. The system can beconfigured to solicit a response for the case from the user at 818 basedupon their preferences.

If it is determined that an individual is outside the online community,the system can be configured to communicate with the outside network todetermine the specialty of the individual within the outside network.The qualifications received from the outside network may then becompared with the requirements set forth in the case at 822. If theindividual from outside the network meets the specialty requirements ofthe case, the system can be configured to solicit a response. The systemcan be configured to customize the solicitation method for eachprofessional network. In the field of health care, for example, thesystem can be configured to communicate with a network of doctors of asingle specialty who participate in various health care related surveys.The system can be configured to pose the case in the form of a survey toindividuals within the outside network to solicit a response.

Recruitment operations can benefit from translation processes asrecruitment may be performed both inside and outside in the environmentbut also across language boundaries. FIG. 9 shows an example flowchartshowing an example process 900 for translating cases according to oneembodiment. The process begins at 902, with extracting concepts from thecase. Concepts from the case, in the form of associated tags orclose-ended parameters, may be extracted from a case at 902. Theconcepts can be derived from a concept taxonomy, and in particular, theSNOMED CT database. The extracted concepts may be used to generate aconcept model at 904. The concept model is an abstract model of the caseand its corresponding information that captures the contextuallyrelevant concepts from both the question and any responses. In oneexample, the concept model is design to include internationallyrecognized concepts (e.g., medical concepts from the SNOMED CTdatabase). The concept model may then be used as the basis with which totranslate the case into a foreign language at 906. The process 906 mayinclude the direct translation of terms in from the concept modelassociated with the close-ended parameters and tags. In addition, wordsmay be inserted following the direct translation of the concept modelterms to form a coherent case and subsequent list of responses todisplay to a user. The translated case may then be displayed to theforeign user at 908.

General Purpose Computer System

Various embodiments according to the present invention may beimplemented on one or more computer systems. These computer systems maybe, for example, general-purpose computers such as those based on IntelPENTIUM-type processor, Motorola PowerPC, AMD Athlon or Turion, SunUltraSPARC, Hewlett-Packard PA-RISC processors, or any other type ofprocessor. It should be appreciated that one or more of any typecomputer system can be configured to facilitate an online environmentaccording to various embodiments of the invention. Further, the systemmay be located on a single computer or may be distributed among aplurality of computers attached by a communications network.

A general-purpose computer system according to one embodiment of theinvention is configured to perform any of the described functions,including but not limited to, creating, storing, and receiving votes oncases by/from users and bidding on cases by information consumers. Itshould be appreciated that the system can be configured to perform otherfunctions, including paying users, receiving payments from informationconsumers, providing indications to users and consumers, etc., and theinvention is not limited to having any particular function or set offunctions.

FIG. 10 shows a block diagram of a general purpose computer and networksystem 1000 in which various aspects of the present invention may bepracticed. For example, various aspects of the invention may beimplemented as specialized software executing in one or more computersystems including general-purpose computer system 1002 shown in FIG. 10.Computer system 1002 may include a processor 1016 connected to one ormore memory devices 1014, such as a disk drive, memory, or other devicefor storing data. Memory 1014 is typically used for storing programs anddata during operation of the computer system 1002. Components ofcomputer system 1002 may be coupled by an interconnection mechanism suchas network 1004, which may include one or more busses (e.g., betweencomponents that are integrated within a same machine) and/or a network(e.g., between components that reside on separate discrete machines).The interconnection mechanism enables communications (e.g., data,instructions) to be exchanged between system components of system 1002.Computer system 1002 also includes one or more input/output (I/O)devices 1012, for example, a keyboard, mouse, trackball, microphone,touch screen, a printing device, display screen, speaker, etc. Inaddition, computer system 1002 may contain one or more interfaces (e.g.,network communication device 1006) that connect computer system 1002 toa communication network (in addition or as an alternative to the network1002).

The storage system 1008, typically includes a computer readable andwriteable nonvolatile recording medium in which signals are stored thatdefine a program to be executed by the processor or information storedon or in the medium to be processed by the program. The medium may, forexample, be a disk or flash memory. Typically, in operation, theprocessor causes data to be read from the nonvolatile recording mediuminto another memory that allows for faster access to the information bythe processor than does the medium. This memory is typically a volatile,random access memory such as a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) orstatic memory (SRAM). The memory may be located in storage system 1008,as shown, or in memory system 1014. The processor 1016 generallymanipulates the data within the memory 1014, and then copies the data tothe medium associated with storage 1008 after processing is completed. Avariety of mechanisms are known for managing data movement between themedium and integrated circuit memory element and the invention is notlimited thereto. The invention is not limited to a particular memorysystem or storage system. The computer system can be configured toinclude specially-programmed, special-purpose hardware, for example, anapplication-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). Aspects of the inventionmay be implemented in software, hardware or firmware, or any combinationthereof. Further, such methods, acts, systems, system elements andcomponents thereof may be implemented as part of the computer systemdescribed above or as an independent component.

Although computer system 1002 is shown by way of example as one type ofcomputer system upon which various aspects of the invention may bepracticed, it should be appreciated that aspects of the invention arenot limited to being implemented on the computer system as shown in FIG.10. Various aspects of the invention may be practiced on one or morecomputers having a different architectures or components that that shownin FIG. 10. Computer system 1002 may be a general-purpose computersystem that is programmable using a high-level computer programminglanguage. Computer system 1002 may be also implemented using speciallyprogrammed, special purpose hardware. In computer system 1002, processor1016 is typically a commercially available processor such as thewell-known Pentium class processor available from the Intel Corporation.Many other processors are available. Such a processor usually executesan operating system which may be, for example, the Windows-basedoperating systems (e.g., Windows NT, Windows 2000 (Windows ME), WindowsXP operating systems) available from the Microsoft Corporation, MAC OSSystem X operating system available from Apple Computer, one or more ofthe Linux-based operating system distributions (e.g., the EnterpriseLinux operating system available from Red Hat Inc.), the Solarisoperating system available from Sun Microsystems, or UNIX operatingsystems available from various sources. Many other operating systems maybe used, and the invention is not limited to any particular operatingsystem.

The processor and operating system together define a computer platformfor which application programs in high-level programming languages arewritten. It should be understood that the invention is not limited to aparticular computer system platform, processor, operating system, ornetwork. Also, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art thatthe present invention is not limited to a specific programming languageor computer system. Further, it should be appreciated that otherappropriate programming languages and other appropriate computer systemscould also be used.

One or more portions of the computer system may be distributed acrossone or more computer systems coupled to a communications network. Thesecomputer systems also may be general-purpose computer systems. Forexample, various aspects of the invention may be distributed among oneor more computer systems (e.g., servers) configured to provide a serviceto one or more client computers, or to perform an overall task as partof a distributed system. For example, various aspects of the inventionmay be performed on a client-server or multi-tier system that includescomponents distributed among one or more server systems that performvarious functions according to various embodiments of the invention.These components may be executable, intermediate (e.g., IL) orinterpreted (e.g., Java) code which communicate over a communicationnetwork (e.g., the Internet) using a communication protocol (e.g.,TCP/IP). It should be appreciated that the invention is not limited toexecuting on any particular system or group of systems. Also, it shouldbe appreciated that the invention is not limited to any particulardistributed architecture, network, or communication protocol.

Various embodiments of the present invention may be programmed using anobject-oriented programming language, such as Java, C++, Ada, or C#(C-Sharp). Other object-oriented programming languages may also be used.Alternatively, functional, scripting, and/or logical programminglanguages may be used. Various aspects of the invention may beimplemented in a non-programmed environment (e.g., documents created inHTML, XML or other format that, when viewed in a window of a browserprogram, render aspects of a graphical-user interface (GUI) or performother functions). Various aspects of the invention may be implemented asprogrammed or non-programmed elements, or any combination thereof.

Various aspects of this system can be implemented by one or more systemswithin system 1000. For instance, the system may be a distributed system(e.g., client server, multi-tier system). In one example, the systemincludes software processes executing on a system associated with a user(e.g., a client system). These systems may permit the user to create,submit, view, search, and vote on cases within an online environment.

Example System Architecture

FIG. 11 shows an architecture diagram of an example system according toone embodiment of the invention. It should be appreciated that FIG. 11is provided for illustration purposes only, and that other architecturesmay be used to facilitate one or more aspects of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 11, a distributed system 1100 may be used to conductfunctions of the environment, including, but limited to, the creation ofcases, storing case information, determining and storing tag informationassociated with cases, performing voting actions, and storing userinformation. System 1100 may include one or more computer systems (e.g.,systems 1102, 1114A-D) coupled by a communication network 1116. Suchcomputer systems may be, for example, general-purpose computer systemsas discussed above with reference to FIG. 10.

In one embodiment of the present invention, system 1102 stores userquestion information in the form of a case in one or more databases(e.g., database 1106). Further, system 1102 performs associatedfunctions with the user question information and its associated case.System 1102 may include a server process (e.g., process 1110) thatresponds to requests from one or more client programs. Process 1110 mayinclude, for example, an HTTP server or other server-based process(e.g., a database server process, XML server, peer-to-peer process) thatinterfaces to one or more client programs distributed among one or moreclient systems (e.g., systems 1114A-1114D).

According to one embodiment, client programs may be capable ofpermitting a user to create, submit, view, search, comment, respond andvote on cases within an online environment. Such client programs mayinclude, for example, any type of operating system and/or applicationprogram capable of communicating with system 1102 through network 1116.In one particular instance, a client may include a browser program(e.g., browser program 1120) that communicates with server process 1110using one or more communication protocols (e.g., HTTP over aTCP/IP-based network, XML requests using HTTP through an Ajax clientprocess, distributed objects, etc.).

Although it is shown by way of example that a browser program may beused to access the environment by users to perform environmentfunctions, it should be appreciated that other program types may be usedto interface a user to server process 1110. For instance, an applicationprogram that is specially-developed to manage case data may be providedto permit a user to perform environment functions according to variousembodiments of the present invention. The client program may be, forexample, a thin client including an interface for managing case data.Alternatively, the client may be a scripted program, or any other typeof program having the capability of transferring case data. According toone embodiment, such client programs may, for example, be downloaded andinstalled over the network. Further, these client programs may be storedand distributed by system 1102 in the form of one or more softwareprograms 1108.

In one specific example, the client program may include an applicationprogram 1122 that permits the user to create, submit, view, search, andvote on cases within an online environment. This program 1122, in oneembodiment, may be integrated with browser program 1120 executing onsystem 1112D. For instance, the application program 1122 may include oneor more controls that, when selected by the user, perform functions formanipulating case information. These controls may be written in avariety of programming languages, and the invention is not limited toany particular language. In one specific example, the control may be alink that, when selected, performs one or more programmed functions.Such functions may permit the user to create, submit, view, search, andvote on cases within an online environment.

Information stored in the database 1106 may include, for example, caseinformation including, but not limited to, a unique case identifier, atimestamp, a reference ID of the case creator, close-ended casedescription parameters (e.g., age of patient, sex of patient, treatmentsetting, etc.), close-ended specialty requirements parameter,close-ended type of question parameter, a chief complaint or briefquestion open-ended parameter, an additional detail open-endedparameter, a list of tags classifying the case, a case utility score,and a flag. In addition, the database 1106 may further include, forexample, case response information including, but not limited to, a caseidentifier, a reference ID of the respondent, type of responseclose-ended parameter, a response open-ended parameter, a timestamp, alist of tags classifying the response, a response utility score, and aflag. The database 1106 may further include, for example, user profileinformation including, but not limited to, a user reference ID, aspecialty close-ended parameter, a user ranking, a screen identifier,and user preference parameters (e.g., how frequently to be contacted,preferred topics, user's use history etc.).

This information may be collected from the user in an interface (e.g.,as presented by program 1122) and stored in the database (e.g., database1106). Additionally, client systems may store a local copy of a user'scase information within a local database associated with the clientsystem (e.g., database 1106 located on client system 1112D). However, itshould be appreciated that the invention is not limited to storing caseand/or user information in any particular location. A client system(e.g., clients 1112A-1112D) may include one or more interfaces throughwhich case information may be presented to the user. In one example,case information and status may be presented in an interface of abrowser program (e.g., browser program 1120) executing on a clientcomputer system (e.g., system 1112D).

User Interfaces

The environment and it associated computer system(s) may present varioususer interfaces for submitting, organizing, and reporting variousinformation related to the environment. FIGS. 12A and 12B are diagramsshowing an example interface 1200 of an online system according to oneembodiment. The diagram shows a user screen that may be displayed, forexample, in an interface of a browser program executing on a generalpurpose computer system as discussed above with reference FIGS. 10-11.

In one embodiment, interface may display a summary page personalized fora user that logs into the system. The system can be configured todisplay on the summary page of a user his/her name, title, date, time,and status. In addition, the system can be configured to display all thecases the user has authored, commented on, responded to, and voted onalong with his/her rank in the online community. The system can beconfigured to also display statistics relevant to the system, such asthe number of users that are online in real-time and the number of usersthat are registered with the online community.

In one embodiment, the user interface may interact with a user profiledata structure to display user specific information on the summary page.The user profile data structure may include a reference identificationdata element. The reference identification data element is a useridentifier that enables the system to track the user's activity withinthe online community. In addition, the user profile data may include aspecialty data element. The specialty data element contains the list ofspecialty areas wherein each user is currently practicing. A rank dataelement may also be stored within the user profile data structure. Therank data element represented a user's status within the onlinecommunity. In addition, a user preferences element may be stored withinthe profile data structure. The user preferences data element contains aplurality of preferences associated with the user (e.g., how to becontacts, preferred topics, etc.). A screen identifier element may alsobe stored within the user profile data element. The screen identifierelement may include a personalized image used within the system torepresent a user to other online community users.

FIGS. 12A and 12B show an example interface 1200 for creating a caseaccording to one embodiment. For example, an environment may supportrespondent specialty restrictions for a given case. In the exampleinterface 1200 relating to case creation, the system allows the user toselect the necessary qualifications 1202A and 1202B that each respondentmust possess in order to submit a response to the case. The systemfurther allows the user to submit close-ended parameters to classify thecase 1204A-1204C (e.g., patient age, patient gender, patient setting).The user interface may contain an interactive drop-down menu to enable auser to select a question or, alternatively, enter their own specificquestion 1206 into an open-ended parameter. The system accepts adescription of the question or alternatively a “chief complaint” 1208 asan unstructured text parameter. The user interface may include a secondunstructured text field to enable a user to add additional informationto further define the question 1210. In the field of health care, forexample, the second unstructured text field may be a “history of presentillness” field 1210. The user interface may also allow the user to postpictures or files 1214 corresponding to the case. In one embodiment, theinterface may operate on a mobile device with camera functionality. Theuser interface, in this example, may allow the user to take a picturewith a mobile device and directly attach the image to the case 1216. Theuser interface can also be configured to allow the user to submit 1212the case to the system.

In one embodiment, the user interface may interact with a case datastructure stored within the system to accept user input during casecreation. A restriction requirement data element may be stored in thecase data structure. The restriction requirement data element may storea plurality of related specialties determined by the user within whicheach respondent must practice. The case data structure may, in addition,contain close-ended classifying information data elements input by theuser. In the field of health care, for example, the classifyinginformation data elements may include a patient's age, gender andsetting. A question data element may be stored as either an open-endedor close-ended parameter in the case data structure. The open-endedvariant of the question data element enables a user to enter a customquestion while the close-ended variant of the question data elementenables the user to choose the question from a list. In one example datastructure, the system can be configured to store question descriptioninformation, or a chief complaint, in a first unstructured text dataelement. The system can be configured to store, in addition, additionaldescription information, or history of present illness information in ahealth care example, relating to the case in a second unstructured textdata element.

The typeahead functionality, as previously discussed above in process600 in FIG. 6, may be implemented to make suggestions to the user whenentering text into any open-ended text parameter, for example, the chiefcomplaint 1208 and additional information 1210 fields. The suggestionmatched by the typeahead feature may be displayed to the user via a listbox 1220 composed of concept suggestions that match the entered textfragments. Matched words may be emphasized (e.g., underlining,highlighting, display intensity, bold, color, etc.) 1218 by the systemto display to the user as tags created by the system for the purposes ofclassifying the case. The emphasized words may also focus the user onthe terms identified within the narrative associated with a matchedconcept. In addition, the system can be configured to list the matchedconcepts with a given tag when a cursor is placed over the emphasizedword. In one embodiment, the system can be configured to store matchedterms from the chief complaint and/or additional information fields in atags data element associated with the case data structure. According toone embodiment, the system can be configured to perform concept matchingindependent of typeahead functionality. The matched concepts can beemphasized (e.g., underlining, highlighting, display intensity, bold,color, etc.) to the user.

FIG. 13 shows an example interface for responding to a case according toone embodiment. For example, an environment may support responses tocase questions posed to the system. The user interface 1300 may displaythe relating case information 1310 to the user to evaluate the case andform an appropriate response. The case information may contain all ofthe close-ended and open-ended parameters associated with the case thatwere entered during its creation from the case data structure. Inaddition, information related to each pre-existing response may bedisplayed to the user 1340. The pre-existing response informationdisplayed to the user may include, but are not limited to, therespondent 1360A, the specialty of the respondent 1360B, the ranking inthe online community of the respondent 1360C, the response submitted bythe respondent 1340, the response utility score 1350, and the number ofvotes on a response 1320B.

In one example, the user interface may accept responses from a user inthe form of votes on a pre-existing response. The system can beconfigured to enable up-voting or down-voting a response as seen by theup arrow 1320A corresponding to an up-vote and down arrow 1320Ccorresponding to a down vote. The total number of votes or the sum ofthe up-votes minus the sum of the down-votes may be displayed 1320Bbetween the up arrow 1320A and the down arrow 1320C. In addition, theuser interface may accept a narrative response in an open-endedparameter 1370. The system can be configured to optionally offersuggestions to the respondent while writing their own response andemphasize/tag matched concepts 1380 through a typeahead processdescribed in process 600 in FIG. 6.

In one embodiment, the user interface may interact with a response datastructure stored within the system to accept user input during responsesubmission. A user reference information data element may be stored inthe response data structure. The user reference information data elementidentifies the respondent within the online community. The response datastructure, in addition, may contain a response description data element.The response description data element is an unstructured text field thatstores a user's submitted answer or their comment on a pre-existinganswer. In addition, the system can be configured to store matchedconcepts within the response description in a tags data elementassociated with the case data structure. The response data structure mayalso include a score element. The score element characterizes theutility of the response.

FIGS. 14A-14B show an example interface for searching or browsing casesaccording to one embodiment. For example, an environment may supportsearching and browsing capabilities for the case database. The userinterface 1400 may allow a user to enter search criteria into theopen-ended search bar 1402. The user interface will continually updatethe cases displayed to the user in addition to the statistics derivedfrom all of the matching cases 1408. The displayed matched casestatistics 1408 may include age, gender, and patient setting. The usermay then select close-ended parameters either alone or in combinationwith the open-ended search bar. The specialty 1404 may be selected tonarrow the field of interest. The question type may also be selected1406. In a health care application, the type of question may relate toprescriptions (i.e. Rx) or optionally diagnoses (i.e. Dx) or a customuser created question.

The cases displayed may be sorted 1410 by various options which mayinclude case rating, time of last response, and number of responses. Theuser interface may also display the number of votes 1412 and answers1414 relating to each case. In addition, generic case information may bedisplayed to the user such as the time of last response 1418, thespecific question 1418, and selected tags associated with the case 1420.The presence of tags within a specific search may be viewed graphicallyin the interface 1422 and sorted by frequency. In addition, specifictags may be selected to further narrow and define the search responsiveto a user's selection.

Interactive Online Information Environment

In one embodiment, an online environment is created, forming aninteractive online information environment. The environment may includea community of users that together, function to exchange information. Insuch an environment, a community is created by one or more rulesinfluencing the behavior of a plurality of users. According to oneembodiment, the rules adhere to the basic drives and ambitions of theusers and channel the interested users back into the environment. Inparticular, rules may be designed that provide incentives (anddisincentives) for certain types of behavior. Optimally, the rulesencourage users to submit original questions, respond to questions, andencourage others to review the responses to foster consensus. In oneembodiment, the rules function without external (other than users) ormoderator intervention.

The overall environment may be driven by several processes. One processpermits users to take independent actions, and the user's independentactions affect the environment. Therefore, the environment can beself-perpetuating. Further, the environment can create its own content,as users define and vote on the questions and responses of others. Theenvironment may be self-regulating, for instance, as users determine thevalue of the questions and responses. One method of the driving of theenvironment involves recruiting new users as individuals within theenvironment pursue their own interests.

The environment can be manipulated to fit the interests of those thatrun the environment (e.g., a system operator) by generating valuabledata for third parties that consume information generated by theenvironment. One method for ensuring that valuable data is generatedincludes creating rules that promote the creation of valuable data andby integrating adjustable variables into the rules.

Such an environment may be applied to different problems, markets, andsubject areas. One such application is health care, and the field ofmedicine in general. The health care industry is a good application ofsuch a system, as there are a number of readily available customers forthe information generated by the environment. For instance, theenvironment may permit physicians to further their understanding ofuncommon ailments by posing a question to specialists within the healthcare community. Another application includes tracking of prescriptionsfor specific ailments to provide pharmaceutical companies insight as towhat treatments physicians most often prescribe.

The environment can successfully exploit multiple behaviors of varioususers, such as greed, drive for collaboration, and humanitarianism.Because there is a continuous need for information, the information ofthe environment is self-renewing and replenishes itself continuously.Although health care is one application of such an environment, itshould be appreciated that the invention is not limited to any specificfield, and may be applied to other information-sharing situations wherecollaboration facilitates information that has value.

In one example application of such a system, a value of a physician'sresponse to a user's specific question (modeled in the system in theform of a “case”) in the system is determined by how many people agreeor disagree with the response at any given moment. Physicians fromdiverse backgrounds are incentivized to submit responses and tocorroborate or dispute those responses in the system, providing aresultant method by which clinical data may be gathered. Further, aranking of users may be determined, used in part to determine a utilityvalue of responses, and to incentivize desired responses and/or votingbehavior.

Example Environment

In one example implementation, a system is provided that permits a userto perform a number of actions relating to questions submitted by users.In one particular embodiment, the user may submit question specificresponses, comment on existing responses, or vote on existing responses.In one example implementation, the question may be represented in thesystem in the form of a case. In the example, the case is a constructthat permits a question to be shared and viewed by other users as wellas allowing the system to track the question as it progresses throughthe environment.

A user may create a question by creating a case that describes thequestion. In one example, the case includes a number of parametersincluding close-ended and/or open-ended parameters. In one example for ahealth care application, the close-ended parameters may include patientgender, age, and setting, and the open-ended parameters may include anarrative and pictures. In another example, the length of the narrativeof the question associated with the case may be any length (e.g., nominimum or maximum length). In other words, the question description canbe as long as a user wants, or as short as he/she wants.

According to another embodiment, the case may also includeclassification information, either part of or separate from the case,the classification information indicating an organization of the casesuch that the case may be easily located. In another embodiment, it isappreciated that the system can be configured to match concepts from anontology database to the user's input into an open-ended text field,such as the narrative field in a case. The system can be configured tocreate tags based upon the matched concepts in the case narrative to aidin organization and classification. Because cases have associated tags,cases with similar or the same tags may be located more easily by asystem or an associated user. Further, actions may be performed inresponse to tag information, such as alerting a user when a case havinga particular tag is created, locating similar cases using taginformation, and other actions relating to the organization and controlof cases.

According to another embodiment, the system can be configured to presentto the user an interface that provides real-time feedback ofclassification information as the user enters information associatedwith the cases. For instance, a list of related cases may be presentedto the user, and while the user enters description information of thecase, the list of the most relevant cases may be changed in response tothe entry of the user. In this way, the feedback permits users to createbetter cases (by seeing already existing cases in the database) and alsopermits the user to easily locate similar cases (e.g., by selectingcases presented in real-time to the user in the interface).

Also, the user may be permitted to express an opinion on an existingquestion by voting or commenting on an existing response. In anotherembodiment, the user may be permitted to submit a response to thequestion. The response may include a narrative to describe and qualifythe response.

In one embodiment, when a user creates a case, the user classifies thecase. The classifications may include but are not limited to classifyingthe case as a particular type of question. There may be more or lessclassification types, depending on the application, but are generallyreferred to herein as a question. The cases may also be classified bythe user and/or system. For instance, tags or other classificationinformation may be associated with a case.

In one embodiment, the online system can be configured to assign eachcase a “value.” Depending on the subject matter of the question, thecase may be assigned an initial value, which may be adjusted dependingon the market value of the case (e.g., the value of the case asdetermined by a bid process involving interested information consumers)and/or the opinions (e.g., in the form of votes) set forth by otherusers relating to the case.

The values may be assigned in real-time, when the case is created,however, the initial value can be revisited with the value on any givencase increased or decreased as needed to promote the health of theenvironment. Health of the environment may be monitored, for example, bymeasuring a number of votes received in a particular area or case. Oncesubmitted, any other users can vote on a case or submit an alternativeanswer with a case as well as forward the case to any other users insideor outside the environment.

The user may also be “charged” a currency for voting on a case. Forinstance, the user may be provided a particular number of points orother credit, and decremented each time the user votes on a case. Theuser's credit may be increased in response to a positive behaviorexhibited by the user in the environment (e.g., the user creates cases,provides early votes, becomes an expert in a particular field, etc.). Inthis manner, the system rewards positive behavior and encouragesparticipation in the environment.

The environment may have a number of different types of consumers andproviders of information. Users that provide questions may or may not becharged a fee for accessing the environment, but in one embodiment ofthe environment, information consumers are charged for their use andaccess to the questions and responses provided by and ability of thesystem to establish communication between others. In one example system,consumers may be charged a subscription fee to search/browse caseswithin the environment. Such fees may be used, for example, to maintainthe environment. In another example system, the results of a submittedquestion may not be shown to the public. In yet another example, theresults of the case may be the exclusive property of the consumer for afixed period of time (e.g., 60 days) after which, the results arepublished to the environment.

In such an environment, it is appreciated that there may be trade-offbetween consensus and early response, but according to one embodiment,such a model according to various embodiments may perform more quicklyand accurately than conventional survey models. In one such system, acustomer/information consumer may be permitted to set predefined“triggers” that alert the consumer if/when a user (e.g., a physician)makes a question of interest. The consumer may then be able to identifyto the environment how many users would need to vote on that questionfor the corresponding responses to be valuable to them. The system canbe configured to determine the current voting rates for the desiredpopulation of users, the amount of incentives (e.g., money) that needsto be applied, and when the consumer agrees, that consumer may begranted exclusive access to the result information. Optionally, usersthat vote on the question may be made available to the consumer fordirect contact, permitting the consumer to more quickly and effectivelyreach a targeted group that has the necessary insight and/or experiencein a given area.

This invention is not limited in its application to the details ofconstruction and the arrangement of components set forth in the previousdescription or illustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable ofother embodiments and of being practiced or of being carried out invarious ways. Also, the phraseology and terminology used herein is forthe purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting. Theuse of “including,” “comprising,” “having,” “containing,” “involving,”and/or variations thereof in this document, is meant to encompass theitems listed thereafter and equivalents thereof as well as additionalitems. Such terms are to be construed as open-ended, that is, to meanincluding but not limited to.

Use of ordinal terms such as “first”, “second”, “third”, etc., in theclaims to modify a claim element does not by itself connote anypriority, precedence, or order of one claim element over another or thetemporal order in which acts of a method are performed, but are usedmerely as labels to distinguish one claim element having a certain namefrom another element having a same name (but for use of the ordinalterm) to distinguish the claim elements.

Having thus described several aspects of at least one embodiment of thisinvention, it is to be appreciated various alterations, modifications,and improvements will readily occur to those skilled in the art. Suchalterations, modifications, and improvements are intended to be part ofthis disclosure, and are intended to be within the spirit and scope ofthe invention. Accordingly, the foregoing description and drawings areby way of example only.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for concept discovery with an onlineinformation environment, the system comprising: at least one processoroperatively connected to a memory, the at least one processor configuredto execute a plurality of system components from the memory, the systemcomponents comprising: a user interface component, executed by the atleast one processor, configured to accept input in an open-ended textfield from a user; and an ontology component, executed by the at leastone processor, configured to communicate with an ontology database andmatch text fragments from the open-ended text field with concepts fromthe ontology database.
 2. The system according to claim 1, wherein thesystem further comprises: an ontology database including terms organizedby concept.
 3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the textfragments include portions of words, single words, or phrases.
 4. Thesystem according to claim 1, wherein the ontology component isconfigured to execute at least one function to: analyze the textfragments to determine colloquialisms in the text fragment and return astandard term or disambiguate sense of the same term or acronyms andreturn a complete standard term.
 5. (canceled)
 6. (canceled) 7.(canceled)
 8. (canceled)
 9. The system according to claim 1, furthercomprising a case database configured to store questions and associatedinformation wherein the case database is configured to organize aquestion and associated information as a case object, and the system isconfigured to identify, automatically, and associate respective caseobjects with standardized concepts.
 10. The system according to claim 9,wherein the questions and associated information are generation frominput received from outside the online information environment.
 11. Thesystem according to claim 9, wherein the questions and associatedinformation are generated through user interaction with the onlineinformation environment.
 12. The system according to claim 9, whereinthe user interface requires input in the open-ended text field from theuser to define a case.
 13. (canceled)
 14. The system according to claim9, wherein the system is further configured to associate classificationinformation to respective case objects that further characterizes theunstructured text in the open-ended text field.
 15. The system accordingto claim 14, wherein the ontology component accesses the classificationinformation stored in the case database and matches based on at leastthe text fragment and the classification information.
 16. The systemaccording to claim 14, wherein the plurality of system componentscomprise an aggregation component configured to aggregate informationwithin the case database according to common concepts.
 17. The systemaccording to claim 9, wherein the system components further comprise: asearch component configured to access the case database, wherein thesearch component matches concepts from the ontology component toconcepts associated with existing cases.
 18. The system according toclaim 17, wherein the user interface is configured to accept a searchnarrative as an open-ended text input, and provide concepts from theontology component to the search component.
 19. (canceled)
 20. Thesystem according to claim 1, wherein the ontology component assigns amatch grade to each concept matched and ranks the matched concepts basedupon the match grade.
 21. The system according to claim 20, wherein theontology component determines match grade based at least in part by thenumber of characters matched from the text fragment with the ontologydatabase concept.
 22. The system according to claim 21, wherein theontology component determines match grade at least in part by employingclassification information in the case.
 23. A computer implementedmethod for concept discovery with an online information environment, themethod comprising: accepting, by a computer system, input into anopen-ended text field from a user; communicating, by the computersystem, with an ontology database; matching, by the computer system,text fragments from the open-ended text field with concepts from theontology database.
 24. The method according to claim 23, furthercomprising accessing terms organized by concept from an ontologydatabase.
 25. The method according to claim 23, wherein matching thetext fragments includes at least one of recognizing portions of words,single words, or phrases; recognizing acronyms and returning a completestandard term; or disambiguating senses of the same term.
 26. (canceled)27. (canceled)
 28. (canceled)
 29. The method according to claim 23,further comprising displaying concepts matched by the ontology componentto a user.
 30. (canceled)
 31. The method according to claim 23, furthercomprising generating records in a case database, wherein the casedatabase is configured to store questions and associated information.32. The method according to claim 31, wherein generating by the computersystem, the questions and associated information from input receivedfrom outside the environment.
 33. The method according to claim 31,wherein generating the records in the case database includes generatingthe questions and associated information from input received from theonline information environment.
 34. The method according to claim 31,further comprising requiring by the computer system input in theopen-ended text field from the user to define a case.
 35. The methodaccording to claim 31, further comprising organizing question andassociated information as a case object in the case database associatedwith standardized concepts from the ontology database.
 36. The methodaccording to claim 31, further comprising storing classificationinformation that further characterizes the unstructured text in theopen-ended text field in the case database.
 37. The method according toclaim 36, further comprising accessing the classification informationstored in the case database and matching based on at least the textfragment and the classification information.
 38. The method according toclaim 36, further comprising aggregating information within the casedatabase according to common concepts.
 39. (canceled)
 40. The methodaccording to claim 31, further comprising receiving a search narrativeas an open-ended text input and searching the ontology database.
 41. Themethod according to claim 39, wherein searching the ontology databaseincludes searching a case database to match concepts from the ontologydatabase to concepts associated with existing cases.
 42. The methodaccording to claim 23, further comprising assigning a match grade toeach concept matched and ranking the matched concepts based upon thematch grade.
 43. The method according to claim 42, further comprisingdetermining match grade based at least in part by the number ofcharacters matched from the text fragment with the ontology databaseconcepts.
 44. The method according to claim 42, further comprisingdetermining match grade at least in part by employing classificationinformation in the case.